Thom Hartman interviewed Penn State University professor Dr. Michael Mann, author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars, on the Green Report about the cause and potential climate implications of these craters.

The show revealed that Russian researchers “have linked the Siberian craters to the abnormally hot summers … of 2012 and 2013 which were warmer than usual by an average of 5 degrees celsius. As temperatures rose, the researchers suggest, permafrost thawed and collapsed, releasing methane that had been trapped in the icy ground.”

Mann said that, while the percentage of methane found inside these craters has been as high as 9 percent compared to an atmospheric level of fraction of a fraction of a percent and methane is more closely linked to warming than carbon emissions, it’s premature to throw up our hands and give up. And he explains why continuing to focus on reducing carbon emissions is essential.

Comments

http://j.mp/revkinmusic Andy_Revkin

For more on the specifics of permafrost dynamics in a changing climate, listen to this 15-minute interview with the only permafrost expert who’s examined one of the holes – Marina Leibman of the Russian Academy of Sciences Siberia Branch. She’s amazing: Fresh Focus on Siberian Permafrost as Hole Count Rises http://nyti.ms/1nDRUcR

http://www.michaeljberndtson.com/ Michael Berndtson

I concur. Hi, Andy. It’s a pretty neat mystery yet to solve.

Maenad

Admitting we’re fck’d isn’t the same as “giving up.” We are showing no signs whatsoever of doing any of the thousand urgent things that must be done to stop continued heating and acidification of the oceans. We’re chasing around the last fish in the ocean right now.

Ash Berger

In this related video, science-fiction media-personality Leo DiCaprio preaches a fearful narrative from the altar of man-made global warming: http://youtu.be/VdioqIraSlk?t=10s

Lucy Howard

Peace is obviously more ecologically sustainable than war as well. Well, war isn’t ecologically sustainable at all. Like no duh!